Continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) masks are used for treating patients having any number of sleeping or breathing disorders during sleeping. The CPAP mask delivers a treatment fluid, such as ambient air or oxygen enriched air to a patient under a predetermined or desired pressure setting.
CPAP masks suffer from many disadvantages. For example, CPAP masks are bulky, making them less aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing. CPAP masks must provide sealable engagement with the patient's skin in order to maintain a sealed environment for achieving the desired pressure for treatment fluid delivery. This sealable engagement leaves wear marks on the patient's skin and may require undesirable amounts of time for the wear marks to disappear. Accordingly, many patients feel uncomfortable in public until the wear marks have disappeared, and male patients may not be able to shave their faces and female patients not be able to apply makeup until the wear marks have disappeared.
Due to the bulky nature of conventional CPAP masks, the masks occupy a large portion of a person's face. This restricts the person's ability to move their head during sleep because laying on the side of one's face may contact the CPAP mask and dislodge the mask from sealable engagement with the patient, thereby evacuating the pressure in the mask assembly. This is undesirable as either the patient is not receiving treatment gases under the ideal pressures or the patient is awakened.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved CPAP mask that addresses the disadvantages associated with conventional CPAP machines.